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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Day 090 LocalrootZ Project (March 31,2010)

Breakfast

Fuji Apple

Lunch

Plain Smiling Hill Farm Yogurt

w/ Honey

Dinner

Leftover Pasta

w/ Spinach & Tomatoes

Rainy Day Part Three... Today I added some of that wonderful winter spinach to the mix as well as a slightly "un"Maine ingredient... but as a conscious consumer and a produce manager by day, I was curious how good those Vermonters were at growing tomatoes. Seeing Longwind Farm is at a very similar latitude to Portland, I had to add them to my leftover pasta because it would be "research" and a big surprise for Cassi, who has craved some tomato slices alot ! I purchased a handful of Vermont Organics Longwind tomatoes. With Olivia's Garden on stand by... getting ready to ramp up their operation for a plentiful spring and backyard beauties keeping what they do and dont do to control pests a secret from an inquiring produce manager, we had no choice but to lean a little west ! Anyhow I would highly endorse the Longwind farm tomatoes.. and when Olivia's Garden has a gap I would highly recommend bypassing the madison monsters from backyard beauties and pick up a Vermato from Longwind. If you can't find them ask... and keep asking !

2 comments:

I wasn't familiar with Backyard Beauties, but they were featured in the New York Times recently. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/dining/31tomato.html?scp=1&sq=tomatoes%20maine&st=cse I was a little freaked out by the amount of energy greenhouse growing consumes.

Hi Meaghan,Thanks for the link... interesting article! I find it interesting how they preach about the predator wasps they use for pest prevention but they fail to mention the amounts of pesticides they pump into the factory. Being a produce manager by day I pride myself in knowing exactly what I am putting on the shelf for my customers and they (backyard beauties) refuse to answer my calls or emails. The amount of resources they burn in order to get tomatoes out their door on a consistent basis is ridiculous. I endorse Olivia's Garden out of New Gloucester! Scott is dedicated to pesticide free hydroponics (essentially organic however USDA does not recognize any hydroponics as organic) Anyhow Olivia's is a much much smaller operation who only lights the greenhouse with that great big ball in the sky rather than using artificial lighting...that is why he will gap during very rainy stretches or during those winter months where sunlight hours are very limited. Ill post a rundown on local tomatoes in the heat of tomato season !